How to Use DocuSign to Digitally Sign Documents

With electronic communications as the new norm, pushing paper feels increasingly awkward and less official. For something as simple as signing up for home insurance or filling out a waiver for a sporting event, it seems intolerably inconvenient and inefficient to wait for hardcopy documents to arrive in the mail, sign them, and then pay postage to send them back. Fortunately, most countries have adopted electronic signature laws that declare them equivalent to paper signatures. In fact, an electronic signature provides a stronger audit trail than a handwritten signature, particularly when you use services like DocuSign. Whereas a handwritten signature can easily be forged on paper, there are additional layers of security when it comes to digitally-signed documents. And, of course, you might save a few trees by using electronic signatures.

Another perk for electronic signature services: you can use your Surface Pro pen to quickly sign a document and keep it secure. In this article, we take a look at how to do that.

Sign Documents Digitally Using DocuSign

DocuSign is a web service that makes it easy for users to digitally sign, store, verify and share documents. There is little required on the part of the recipient when signing a document. When someone wants you to electronically sign a document, you’ll be sent a unique link to the document via email. Click Review Document. This will take you to a secure page on DocuSign’s website.

After opening and agreeing to the terms and conditions, an area of the document is activated for signing.

Users can choose two options: use a signature generated by DocuSign, or draw one. Since I have a Surface Pro with Pen, why waste the opportunity to use it?

Click the Draw tab then write your signature as you normally would on a physical document, then click Adopt and Sign.

Your custom signature will then be inserted into the document. Click Finish to complete.

You can sign in with your Microsoft Account or other supported platforms to view your document. A confirmation email will also be sent to your account.

Conclusion

That’s pretty much all there is to using DocuSign. The service also provides pMicrosoft Office plug-ins for apps like Word and Outlook, which makes it convenient to use it from within these popular desktop apps. The great thing about it is that I didn’t have to print, mail, or scan anything in order to sign the documents.